"Right. I'm sure a lot of people will be at the Assignment Board tomorrow after class, we're bound to find some others who'd like to partner up." Hayato said. "Anyway, I better get my stuff sorted out and see if I can get some last minute review in. I didn't do so hot in the academic sector last year, almost got held back. Can't make that mistake again. I'll see ya around, Joe." With a farewell wave to his new friend, Hayato headed into the dorm, too deep in thought to notice anything or anyone else. Professor Gene had told him to focus on his studies and on getting real field experience. Hazel had shown him just what that experience was worth. And given all the attention their match had drawn, maybe he wouldn't have such a hard time finding a group to party up with. All in all, aside from a lesson in utter humiliation from a girl, today had actually been pretty productive. In the professor's office, before, he'd felt like he was being told all his efforts thus far were useless. Maybe they had been. But, maybe, if he had some help, and tried his best...maybe he could catch up. Finding his room on the E Rank floor, right above the lobby, he headed inside and locked the door behind him. A hot shower, unpacking, and some reading in the Intermediate Swordplay book would probably wrap up his night. --- The next day, both students and teachers literally hit the ground running. For most, the first class would be a physical education course designed to not only keep all the classes in decent physical shape (even the Magi needed to stay healthy) but to get their blood pumping and raise their energy levels. With this boost, the bleariness most normal students would have in their morning classes was eliminated, and with their brains now fresh and alert they would move on to various general education courses. After lunch the various Classes would head towards their different training courses, things like swordsmanship, stealth, tactics, magic control, and whatever else they'd secured on their schedules. Afterwards, those who weren't worried about homework (which, with this being the first day, was light) either went off to do their own thing or gathered in the entrance lobby of the main school building, where a large holo-board was displayed with all the publicly available Special Assignments. Hayato was looking for something he thought would be a good challenge for a full 5-person group of E-ranks, and so far he'd picked out three that he liked the sound of: D-Rank: Blighted Woods A research group is attempting to establish a base of operations in Excaledvol in an area of thick forest. Exbeasts in the forest are attacking the researchers. It is vital that we clear the monsters out enough that research can continue, so that in the future we'll have more information about Excaledvol and how to separate our two worlds again. The Exbeasts are E-Rank, but there may be several and they are on home territory. At least two people are recommended for this assignment. Reward: 50 Academy Credits. Bonus: Exbeast materials. D-Rank: Cockatrice Hunt We've recieved a report of a Cockatrice, a D-rank Exbeast, prowling around a local rural community. While it's not a powerful combatant, a Cockatrice has very potent magic venom that causes organic material to petrify. At least three party members are recommended for this quest. Reward: 100 Academy Credits. Bonus: Exbeast materials. D-Rank: Fire Rat Extermination A small harbor town is plagued by Fire Rats, Ex-Beasts with fireproof fut that start small fires to make their nests in and thus can potentially burn down buildings, and has asked Academmo for help dealing with the pyromaniac rodents. Reward: 50 Academy Credits. Bonus: Exbeast materials. --- OOC: All students can take missions of up to one rank above their own rank, and a full 5-person party can take missions of up to two ranks above the lowest ranked person in the party. Thanks to Duthguy for submitting the idea for the Fire Rat quest, and if anyone wants to come up with more quests feel free to do so! Academy Credits, or AC, are roughly equivalent to USD. Exbeast materials means anything from the monster you can chop off if you think it's useful; for instance, the fur of the Fire Rats would make good fireproof clothing.

### Day 2, First Semester "Mr. Himonaga!" "..yes-" Ryouta stopped playing with his watch, a hologram emitter that served as a personal assistant device amongst other things, such technology could have only been made with the compliments of Magic that manipulated dust in the air. It beeped off and he looked up - only to see his P.E teacher in trekking pants and a windbreaker, staring at him with a displeased look on her face. "-Madame?" "Why aren't you in running attire!?" She asked loudly, a large portion of his class turned to look at them. "Asthma." "Again?" She asked, suspcicious of him. "If you have asthma YOU should be running more!" Ryouta would argue that logic otherwise but he just nodded along, drowning her words out with his own thoughts, she did not seem in the mood foR a biology lesson. "...Go to the nurse's offIce and get me a--!" "Here." Ryouta whipped out a slip of paper quicker than she could finish, he handed it over to her with both hands fRom which she snatched and read. Her irritated expression bore down on him after she read it but as usual, she could not do anything about it and walked away. "Thnk you for you hard work." Ryouta whispered cheekily (as is the custom of Japanese to say after someone provides a service) when she walked out of earshot, he enjoyed these little triumphs every now and then. Excercising at dawn made no sense to him, a cup of strong tea already kept him awake, being all sweaty and exhausted would not make him anymore alert. Like would having hot, spicy food cool you down? No. But there are many others who thinks it would. Sometimes the warped view of things these people had really made no sense to him. Speaking of odd people. In the distance he spied three of his classmates, three girls who were according to their scores, rather skillful adepts. And they were looking straight at him. Curious as to what they wanted, he raised a hand and waved at them. But immediately they turned around and ran as quickly as they could in the other direction, in a series of squeals - leaving him bewildred and frankly, kind of disturbed. It must be the stress around here....... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The noon sessions are over. Ryouta stretched out his hands and bent his fingers outwards, it was an early dismissal from Folk Lore, one of his favourite classes. It was a class particularly popular with Summoners, as they get to learn about exotic and potentially undocumented exbeasts. There was even a catching trend among them to see who could make a contract with one of the rarer creatures, kind of like an old game kids used to play, it promoted a rather friendly yet competitive comraderie among these peculiar Magi. He sometimes envied them. Looking at the timetable, it was time to select a mission. Ryouta grabbed his bag and sauntered down to the area where the available tasks were displayed, the place was bustling with people and already he could tell the cliques that were forming. Everyone wanted a balanced party with all the roles covered, to be with close friends or to simply pair up with the most reknowned students foR fame and whatnot. Most seniors already had groups they were used to too .....except for him. He had different criterias. Tapping his watch again, the screen lit up with a list of somesorts. There were ticks and crosses that marked each sentence. He perused the stands while often referring back to it, as if looking for something specifically. He felt a few pairs of eyes watching him but it was usual, everyone who has not found a group yet were probably considered carefully by those who already have and needed one more. It was still no less awkward though. He hurried ahead to the D-Rank boards after noting down several A/B/C-Rank missions and politely refusing a few offers. **"Ah. There we go."** Ryouta mused to himself when he saw the word 'cockatrice' appear in one of the listings, taking down it's serial number and location quickly. It was then when he saw a farmiliar face. Weaving past a couple, he came up behind his victim. **"Hehey, how's your shoulder doing?"** He slapped a hand on said shoulder of the freshmen he met yesterday.

Hazel awoke, fresh and ready for her first _real_ day of school. Yesterday was exciting, but there really was nothing like the feeling of excelling at something. At least that was the case for Hazel. She woke up early, picked a nice outfit, showered, put her makeup on, and was off in a flash. Breakfast for Hazel was a quick affair: Junk food from one of AcadeMMO's many vending machines eaten on the way to her first class. She was lucky that she exercised so much because Hazel frankly ate like crap. The day started, as expected, with PE. Hazel was, naturally, over-competitive with everything and went hard with whatever activity was given. After that she found herself in her academic classes. When it came to these classes she was focused and didn't miss a thing. Afterwards she spent a quick lunch period her friends, and the day morphed into Martial classes. Hazel was, of course, in an advanced swordsmanship class. Most people outright refused to spar with her, but it was hard to fault them for it. Hazel didn't see it that way, however, and they were cowards as far as she was concerned. So she found herself practicing against dummies for most of the period. She knew her defense was sloppy, but it was hard to practice that against practice targets. The rest of her Martial classes passed by quickly, and she found herself in a few short hours approaching the Special Assignments board. She suddenly remembered her promise to Hayato. She did say that she would go on a Assignment with him, but realized she left him with no way to contact her. Hazel stared at the the A-Ranked boards, but she soon noticed Hayato at the D-Ranked section. _Speak of the devil... I guess I have to follow through on what I said._ She sighed, and started approaching. That was, until she spied the uptight Magi from yesterday. Approaching Hayato. Hazel stopped. _No damn way. I told the guy I'd help him but..._ She sighed once again, and resumed her approach. Hazel didn't believe in going back on her word. She moved past the upperclassman and parked herself on the far side of Hayato. She didn't bother greeting him, and didn't bother to let him return the senior's greeting. "I told you I'd go on a mission with you, so if you want to now is your chance."

Immediately after the end of her last class, Winnifred made her way to the special assignments board. She stood in front of it, a serious gaze on her face as she studied the assignments listed. In her first year she'd only done just enough to make to to a D Rank, and was determined to do better this time around, now that she wasn't a complete newbie at the academy this year. Still, she didn't want to take something that'd be too overwhelming when she was just getting back into the swing of things. On top of that, she'd need allies as well. Glancing around at the other students gathered in front of the board, she recognized a couple familiar faces. The boy and the girl who'd had that match in the gym the day before were already looking at the assignment list, from the looks of it. Winnifred figured it couldn't hurt to see what they had in mind, and approached them. "Hey, I saw you two in the gym the yesterday," she said, a friendly smile on her face in an attempt to make a good first impression. "So what kind of assignment are you guys looki..." About mid-sentence she noticed another boy was also standing by the two and realized it seemed as if they may have been in the middle of talking already. "Uhh, I mean, sorry to interrupt! Don't mind me!" Winnifred laughed a bit nervously.

The rest of Rian’s day passed by in unremarkable mediocrity; he settled himself into his new room, headed to the campus cafeteria for a meal, made use of the fitness facilities, and then turned himself in rather early to prepare for the next day. Though he shared greetings or chatted with several acquaintances, nothing on the scope of what happened at the arena occurred once more for him. ---- When he awoke, it wasn’t exactly as bright and early as some who knew of how he had spent his summer months might have expected. There was just enough time for Rian to get himself ready and head over to the cafeteria for breakfast. before arriving just in time for the first period of class. Stretching on his own accord as the class gathered and waited for the teacher, he tuned out the hushed whispers of those who had yet to be in physical education with him. Despite being rather physically fit, it was in a manner that was lithe and graceful, so it actually only emphasized his feminine appearance. After that came the more mundane courses that could be found in most schools in one form or the other around the world. Frankly it was a bit hard for him to pay attention given the way things were, but he pushed himself to focus through. Even then his attention wandered and Rian had to stop himself from dozing off a few times, often resorting to playing with his hair for simply something to do. ‘Come on… if any of them find out, they’re going to be annoyed.’ As he reminded himself for not the first time, the thought nonetheless gave him a bit of a push to sit up straighter and focus. After lunch when the Magic courses came around, Rian threw himself at the course and their materials as per usual. Utterly different from himself during the morning periods, his interest towards the supernatural when compared to the mundane was fairly obvious to anyone with functioning eyes. Though he wasn’t exactly enthusiastic during these periods, his contrasting mannerisms made it quite apparent that this was what he really looked forward to. ---- As classes came to a close, Rian followed his usual routine and wandered over to the lobby to look for an appropriate Special Assignment. Unsurprisingly, given it was the first day, there was quite the crowd already there to pick up whatever Assignments were being offered. A quick glance, from even the complete back of the crowd, let Rian tell there weren’t many he was interested in taking, and none he would have actively tried to pursue. He did see a few that he figured would be easy enough if he could find a willing group he could participate in. In fact… though it was a bit hard to tell given the crowd in his way, Rian thought he saw Hayato from yesterday closer to the holoscreen. The Knight had seemed amiable enough to Clerics and given he had healed the taller boy yesterday, Rian figured there was a good chance of being accepted to a “party”. Pushing his way through the crowd served to be plenty hard given his stature, and it was with some effort that he managed to arrive near the black-haired teen. Clutching at his chest, he sighed lightly as he managed to extract himself from the throng of students before he looked around. It seemed that Hayato wasn’t alone, but the whole gang from yesterday was around; even the blonde had been a spectator if he wasn’t mistaken. Taking a moment to smooth out his beige robes, he finally raised a hand in greeting towards the gathered students. **“Afternoon, don’t suppose any of you are interested in the D-Rank: Cockatrice Hunt Assignment?”**

Soka arrived to his first class on time. He was happy to get some exercise in, because he wasn't sure if he would enjoy any of the other classes that would follow. There was a reason that he had not decided to come to this school until this year. Soka had discovered his magic abilities some time ago, and had developed his abilities a lot on his own. He never really thought that he needed formal instruction on how to use something that came natural to him. Of course, this was far from true. However, he had eventually decided to come here after all. And now here he was Soka made small talk with a few people in his PE class, noticing some people here and there that he thought might make good friends. After class, he got some water from a water fountain and went into the halls again to find his Elementary Magic Theory class. He sat through the class, actually finding a lot of the principles and discussion pretty interesting. Maybe this place wouldn't be too bad after all. When classes were finished, Soka made his way into the halls again. Seeing large crowds gathering, Soka blinked and headed over to the front lobby of the main building. Curious, Soka held his backpack straps in his hands as he stood behind the large crowd in front of the holo-board. Eventually he was able to spot the D-Rank missions. _Finally, I get to have some fun_, he thought to himself. Reading the details of the missions that were available to him. _I'll go with the woods or the fire rats. Anything but that venomous monster._ When he had decided on two potential missions, Soka blinked a few times, before gazing around. _I may be confident in myself, but there's no way I should do a mission alone. Hm, who can I go with?_ He looked around at various students nearby. _A lot of these people already have friends, so my best bet is to find another newbie._ Eventually, he spotted a preppy looking kid with dark hair. This person seemed to have put particular effort into tucking his shirt in, wearing pants with suspenders, and even had writing pens in his shirt pocket. He certainly didn't look like the adventurous type, but he did look new and didn't seem to have anyone to party with either. Soka walked over to him. "Hey, sorry to talk to you randomly." Soka began. "Wanna party with me for a mission?" The kid looked back at Soka and looked terrified. "What?? It's my first day here! Why would I want to do something dangerous like that?! And I don't even know you." The kid replied, before anxiously looking around and quickly walking away. -__- .... _This might be harder than I thought._

"The cockatrice one?" Winnifred looked to see who had asked, realizing it was the cleric she'd seen in the gym yesterday as well. Familiar faces everywhere, apparently. "Oh yeah, I saw that one too. Might be a good one to start with, eh? If you're thinking of taking it, I'll come along too, if you want. I'm a sniper, so I can probably do a number to it before it gets too closer at least." She paused for a moment, only to realize she was going on about all this without even introducing herself, and so added, "Oh right, I'm Winnifred by the way." She directed her introduction towards the others standing there as well as the cleric... girl? The cleric looked like a girl, anyway, but Winnifred felt like something was off. She didn't dwell on it too much, though.

John understood the reasoning behind starting the day doing exercises, but that didn't mean he liked it. _"This would be more interesting if we could our abilities and spells, but nooo we aren't allowed."_ He did make sure he pun enough effort to avoid any comments from the teachers about needing to try harder. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Luckily for him his afternoon classes included Folk lore, which was not only his favorite subject, it was also the one he got the best grades in. Less fortunate was that after class was over the teacher Professor Brooks want to talk with him. "John you could have easily passed last year if you had done any Assignments. Now I know you don't like hurting Ex-Beasts, but this year I'm gonna have to insist you at least accept the bare minimum umber of Assignments necessary to make it to third grade." John knew the Professor had a point but he wasn't happy about it. "Yes sir. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ After he was done with al his classes for the day John headed for the main building to check out the available Special Assignments. Since there didn't seem to be any E Ranks open for now, he had to pick between the three D Rank Assignments. _ "I don't like any of those, so rather than picking one myself I'll just join whoever asks me too."_ With that in mind he tried to make himself unnoticeable hoping no one would ask him.

The physyical education class was rather disappointing. Joe had expected more out of the prestige it had, but it was only the first day and Joe did martial arts most of his life. It was probable that they'll advance later down the year, it wasn't that it was easy either. It just wasn't something Joe hadn't already done. After that it was tactics and Joe had learned that indeed, strikers and knights do best with a cleric or a binder. He would say he paid enough attention to hear anything else, but he'd be lying. He honestly only cared about fighting and beating up things at this point. The rest were just extra stuff. In one class he did spar against the other strikers, trying to find out our skill levels. The others were talented as well, so perhaps Joe shouldn't underestimate how tough this was going to be. After a little bit of struggling because he didn't take the tour, he finally found the assignment board that one kid was talking about. The first thing that caught his attention was a five person group that seemed to be around his age. The people standing out for him were Hayato and that one chick that kicked his ass yesterday. Wait.. Wasn't five person the max? Betrayal! Well, he wouldn't blame him, she's pretty cute. As a striker, he was pretty versatile. There weren't any worries. He could find someone else to do a mission with. Around the same mission rank but not standing in the group was another kid. There, Joe already found the first person he could do a mission with. Joe made the necessary steps to his target. "Yo, are you looking for a D rank mission as well?"

When someone slapped his shoulder from behind Hayato gave a start, but he smirked when he saw that it was the Magi with a sword from yesterday. "A lot better, actually! Thanks to that Cleric girl, both of them are good as new." he chuckled and turned to the other boy, and was about to do his usual handshake and greeting when Hazel suddenly strode up. She seemed to be completely ignoring the mage, but rather firmly informed him that she would make good on her promise. Hayato rubbed the back of his head nervously, somewhat intimidated by her forward charge. "Well, I..." he began, although then they were joined by the blonde girl who had watched their match yesterday. She started to ask them about the missions, but then glanced around to take in the situation and made a hurried apology. Hayato waved it away with a smile. "Oh, it's no problem. I'm actually looking for..." Someone else addressed them, asking if they were interested in hunting the Cockatrice, and Hayato turned to see the Cleric from yesterday. On one hand, this was perfect! "She" would be a great fit for a team with more Martial than Magic classes. But on the other hand, when had he gotten so popular? Was it Hazel? Or was this just what it was normally like, being out here at the mission board? He'd barely ever come here until now. He thought he saw and heard Joe, out there in the crowd, but it seemed the Striker was talking to someone else. Hayato didn't want to leave him out, but there were already so many others gathered up... "Actually, I was kind of interested in the Blighted Woods." he finally spoke up. "For one thing, this'll be my first real go-around with Exbeasts and I don't want to risk it against something like the Cockatrice. Even if it's only D-Rank, it's rumored to be able to turn people to stone." He crossed his arms and looked down at the ground then, and his voice got a bit lower, more somber. "Plus, I'd kind of like to explore Excaledvol itself. Eventually I'm probably going to go...on a search...there, so I want to be prepared..."

John was surprised at how quickly someone asked him to partner up. Just from looking at the boy talking it was clear he was a Martial Class. "Yes I'm actually. I also don't really care about which one we end up doing. He hoped his potential partner wouldn't ask why he didn't care and quickly changed the subject. "I'm a Summoner by the way, so I hope you have no trouble fighting alongside Ex-Beasts. And what is your Class?."

_Cleric girl?_ Ryouta looked a bit puzzled when Hayato said that, well, maybe he got healed a second time after the match yesterday? Getting injured again and playing on the compassionate hearts of young women? My my, this one is sly! Then, something came along. Something ominous. Something obnoxious and loud. Like a crow that won't stop sqwaking. _I told you I'd go on a mission with you, so if you want to now is your chance._ He looked up and yep, there she was. Sticking out like a sore thumb. He squeezed Hayato's shoulder, **"この狂気の女性では、キュウリが好きスライスします。真剣に！(This crazy woman will slice you like a cucumber. Seriously!)"** Ryouta interjected In japanese. So that she could not understand what he was saying, not that he was worried she could do anything about it. Maybe somewhere, deep down, he just wanted to annoy her. It was then he heard someone mutter something he might have missed, turning around he saw a girl with blonde hair and the Cleric fRom yesterday. The word 'cockatrice' was brought up and he immediately raised his hand. **"I am."** The crowd started to grow, it was not unusual among the year ones to band with whom they knew, interacting with them made him feel young and nostalgic again. The memories of the year past, the good ones anyway. Then Hayato began speaking again, almost like he was hiding something. Looks like he had more personal reasons foR going on missions. Ryouta could understand, he might ask later but not now. _Well, this was a dilema._ On one hand, he wanted to make sure the boy was not being butchered alive by some ax-crazy girl. On the other hand, he had an objective to complete.

Joe's breath halted, he had never heard of this summoner class before. That wasn't surprising, the only classes he really knew were the martial classes. He did have some limited information about Magi's, like clerks but that was really it. Oh well, it was just a Magi class. He was bound to work with them anyway. Yet, he still felt this strong urge to bounce. Maybe he was alright, though if he made one mistake Joe would leave, he would at least attempt to befriend the guy. "Lets do the Cockatrice Hunt. I'd like to fight it. Besides, it has the most rewards. So that's pretty cool.", it seemed like it was the strongest of them all, and that was Joe's goal. Fight, get stronger and fight stronger people. This would also be a good way of gauging the strength levels of the exbeasts per rank. It was advised to have three people so it would be best if they sought for someone else. "So, lets search for someone else around here.", Joe proposed. "I'm a striker. I have no hatred for Exbeasts, they did me nothing wrong so that should be fine." "Now, lets go look for someone else to join this club"

_Japanese? He's talking shit about me. He's **definitely** talking shit._ Hazel let out a huff. _How dare he. I'm over here, trying to help out someone weaker, and this asshole is talking has the gall to talk about me in front of me, using words I can't understand._ The fact that Ryouta might be saying something else didn't even cross Hazel's mind. Hazel got into the face of the upperclassman. "Listen here... you... jerk! If you have something to say about me, say it to my face!" Hazel, at this point, was fuming, hands balled up into fists at her side. _Where the hell does this guy get off acting superior to me? Hmph!_

**"It IS to your face. You little peepsqueak!"** Ryouta let go of Hayato's shoulder and turned to look down on her. Now everyone could see how volatile she was, what kind of drugs did she eat for breakfast!? Or was she overcompensating for her short stature? He looked at the way her fists balled up, any sign of aggressive movement and he would react to it. That'll be a chance to teach her about how much 'protection' Mages needed. Gosh. He could not believe they let someone like her into the academy! Like yesterday's attempt at manslaughter isn't enough, now she's out for more blood!

John was surprised that the Striker had no problems with Ex-Beasts, a lot of students Summoners included, seemed to at the very least dislike them."Oh yeah before I forget my name is John, what should I call you?" To be honest he also wanted to ask what weapon he used, but he didn't want to make it oblivious he had no idea what a Striker was, so he kept quiet about it. Instead he focused on finding someone to be the last member of their party. _"A Cleric might be useful or maybe a Binder." _ Even though he had two Classes he preferred, it still wasn't easy to find a single person in this mass of people.

"I'm getting real tired of you!" Hazel shouted, as she cocked back her fist. If Hazel was good at anything, it was picking fights with people larger then her. Upperclassman? Male? She cared not. Hazel sent a punch flying directly towards Ryouta's face.

Ryouta saw the fist coming, he knew she would try something like this! He leaned back then swayed to the side, letting her fist pass inches away from his jaw before spinning around on his heel to face her again. He was suprisingly quick on his feet for most people's expectations of a Magi. Most thought they were slow and pampered, dragged down by their frilly clothes and prissy attitudes. "**What are you trying to do with those puny arms, shortstuff?"** He goaded, wagging his finger at her in a "Nu-uh" manner.

Soka had asked four people total if they were interested in going on a mission with him, and so far everyone had declined. _Jeez this sucks. Can't a guy catch a break around here?_ Sighing. _Forget it. I'll do some missions in a couple of weeks when I've met some more people._ Having given up, the red-brown haired Soka decided to go outside. He was moving through the lobby toward the main entrance, when he saw two males (Joe and John). _Just two? Maybe they have room for one more?_ But he was out of energy from asking the others from before. About fo leave, he looked into the crowd and happened to see a red haired girl throw a punch at someone. Soka blinked and walked in that direction, definitely not getting close to any action that may take place, but to a place where he could watch.

"Nah, she's just sort of what they'd call tsundere," began Hayato as the magi spoke to him in their shared language. Hazel wasn't having any of it though, and drew back her fist after another moment of taunting. With a shout she tried to punch the mage; Hayato started to move to stop them, beginning with, "Whoa, Hazel, wait--" But the mage barely dodged the punch, spinning out of the way, just in time for Hayato to catch it. With his face. "--HIDEBU!" Puny arms or not, Hazel was full of feminine indignation at the moment, thus her punch sent Hayato flying head over heels, bouncing comically along the ground until he finally landed head first, and slowly collapsed into a face down, ass up position. As he slowly lifted his aching head, exposing a black eye and swollen lip, a hissing trail of smoke curled into the air from the bright red imprint of a fist. "Hayshel, maybe yew should come wiff me, and da udda guy go...wiff dem.." he managed, before fully collapsing.